This party can bayou happiness

Let the good times roll at Siletz Bay Music Festival fund-raiser

By Eliot Sekuler

For the TODAY

Shine up the dancing shoes, break out the beads and second line umbrellas and join the “Krewe” as the Siletz Bay Music Festival celebrates Mardi Gras on Saturday, March 1 at the Lincoln City Cultural Center.  Tickets are now on sale for this fund-raising event, which will feature mouth-watering New Orleans-style food, an irresistibly danceable live band and silent and live auctions packed with bargain goodies.

In line with the event’s spirit of celebration, the cultural center’s auditorium will be transformed into a festive nightspot, with music, food, dancing and décor, all designed as tips of the hat to the famed New Orleans event. Costumes are strongly encouraged, but not required. A “best costume” prize will be awarded.

Dance music will be provided by the Portland-based, 10-piece group DTW, brought back to this year’s festival fund-raiser by popular demand. A self-styled “American horn band,” the DTW fuses jazz, funk, R&B and swing into a sound designed for compulsive toe-tapping and for moving audiences onto the dance floor and into the second line. The origin of the band’s name is shrouded in mystery. Asked if the three letters are an abbreviation for people or things, the group has offered numerous possibilities including “Drink the Wine,” “Dark Tepid Water,”  “Darrell the Walrus” and “Decolonize the World.”  Audiences are invited to pick their favorite (or create their own.)

Dan Howard, executive director of the Newport Symphony, will serve as Grand Marshall for the event. Howard, who took the reins of the Newport Symphony in July 2024, is a professional trombonist and music educator who taught in the Boise, Idaho, school system for more than a decade. More recently he served as director of operations for the prestigious National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Appetizers will be served as doors open at 5:30 pm, followed by a Louisiana-themed “something-for-everybody” buffet dinner, catered by Simply Plated, at 6:30 pm. King Cakes created by My Petite Sweet will be placed at each table. In the Mardi Gras tradition, a King Cake is a rich, filled cake baked with the figurine of a baby inside. When the cake is cut, the person whose slice contains the baby will be crowned king, or queen, of the table and will take home the table’s centerpiece.

The live auction will be held at 8:15 pm after which dancing will continue until doors close at 9:30 pm.

Tickets, priced at $125 or $900 for a table of eight, are available at siletzbaymusic.org.

This year’s Siletz Bay Music Festival will run from August 14 through 24. A schedule of concerts and program information will be announced in the coming months.

For more information, email info@siletzbaymusic.org.